Data Science Education Gets Stronger, But It's Not There Yet

Earlier this fall, Kennesaw State University launched the country’s first Ph.D. program in data science. While the four-to-five-year program in Georgia is sure to turn out candidates for data science jobs, unfortunately, it won’t begin to scratch the surface of the current demand.The lack of data science skills is arguably the number one problem facing the big data and data analytics community. The research firm Gartner says the current demand for data scientist exceeds the current supply by factor of three. It’s no wonder the starting salary for data scientists is well into six digits and competition for these so-called “unicorns” is so fierce. Universities and corporations are responding to the data analytic skills in the marketplace by launching new educational programs aimed at boosting the number of qualified data…